Argh! im going nuts. Some times my carputer wont even boot (it turns on, but nothing is sent to the screen, nothings shows up, and music never starts playing so it just doesnt boot. All I have to do to fix this, is remove the CF card, and put it back into its slot.

next prob:

I have a Nexstar 2.5" USB HD enclosure with an 80 gb HD in it, it works fine if i plug it in after the winxp boot screen, but if I plug it in before power it sometimes freezes the boot, and when it doesnt, its just not recognized in windows,,, ive tried everthing in the bios to no avail, im starting to think its a problem with the nexstar itself, and I dont have the cash to go out and buy a new one....

Oh! Also, im having problems with sound, I was getting ignition noise after about 15 mins of driving on the highway, when i drive around locally it doesnt make any noise, so I bought a GLI(ground loop isolator) and it made the sound worse!

Im using onboard sound, and the shuttle is out of its case on a piece of plexiglass. The PSU is on top of the passengers feet area not touching anthing. The sound is going from a 1/8" headphone jack to the RCA inputs of my headunit(clarion mp3,,,,,dunno the model) If I take a wire and ground the PSU to the chassis of the car, the sound greatly diminishes(when the GLI is plugged in, otherwise it doesnt change anything) So I was thinking of grounding the PSU, the Mobo, the screen, the headunit, and ill try to ground the Inverter all at the same place..

Yes. I am running winXP SP1 on the CF, there is NO OS on the external, only folders with music, dvds, video, apps, etc....

Yes winXP is nLited, and im using MinLogon AND EWF, not using HORM because the CF card wasnt big enough

I dont see see how the CF card only works after I unplug/plug the CF card... the external hard drive is always unplugged on boot now, i got used to it and i unplug it before leaving, but when I start, some times it doesnt boot, (lets say 1/5 of the times it boots I have to shut it off, remove the CF card from its slot, and put it back...)

If I try booting with the USB HD it freezes, but as soon as I unplug it it continues, some times the winxp load screen (with the blue progess bar) freezes with the HD plugged in, other times it will go into windows without problems, but wont recognize the drive, one little unplug for 1 second and plug back in makes windows recognize it right away...

Did you use another harddrive to install nlite? If so does it have the same problems when connected to the board. If you installed windows onto the CF directly I'd consider using an IDE harddrive first then copy the OS to your CF when your COMPLETELY finished.

Reset your BIOS to default (so that your working at a known point)

Then boot your machine with nothing but the CF card plugged in. If it boots to windows after resseting the BIOS then continue if not there's a BIOS setting you must fix. Careful when changing BIOS settings try to change a few at a time.

Now plug the 80GB drive into the machine before its powered. Power the machine and immediatly go into the BIOS. If your BIOS can see the USB harddrive make sure its listed correctly (i.e. make sure the BIOS knows its an EXTERNAL device and not listed as an IDE drive or SCSI) Refer to the Mobo's user manual if your unsure here. Also make sure the 2GB CF card is listed as an IDE drive and NOT an external or USB device.

At this point I highly recommend upgrading your nLite build to include SP2. I know there were some major USB related issues addressed by SP2 When doing this make certian to include "external device support" within nLite. Also download and use the latest version of nLite when rebuilding.

A few more things to remember. Make sure ALL your devices are connected and working properly BEFORE applying minlogon and EWF. I'd recommend that you apply minlogon first and test the system a bit before jumping into EWF.

Another possibility is that your external USB device isn't getting enough power within your car. Does the device work properly when connected to another computer? Does your device have firmware that can be updated?

The last time I saw a problem like this the external USB device was not functioning properly, however you definatly want to test everything before you conclude a bad peice of hardware.

The thing here is that nLited XP on a CF card with XPe components implimented makes for one hell of a troubleshooting experiance. Keep in mind that your dealing with a completely different OS that acts very different from say a normal install of XP pro.

Thanks for your ideas. Ive already done EVERYTHING with the bios, didnt do nothing. I never had the problem with a hard drive(before I did a full copy) I only noticed that it did that about a week after I installed it in my car. I didnt put SP2 cause I didnt have enough space on the CF card...

Im going back home this weekend (heated garage) and ill work on my car a little bit, hopefully ill be able to fix the problems, if anyone else has some suggestions please post it will really help!!

thanks!

Originally Posted by IntellaWorks

Did you use another harddrive to install nlite? If so does it have the same problems when connected to the board. If you installed windows onto the CF directly I'd consider using an IDE harddrive first then copy the OS to your CF when your COMPLETELY finished.

Reset your BIOS to default (so that your working at a known point)

Then boot your machine with nothing but the CF card plugged in. If it boots to windows after resseting the BIOS then continue if not there's a BIOS setting you must fix. Careful when changing BIOS settings try to change a few at a time.

Now plug the 80GB drive into the machine before its powered. Power the machine and immediatly go into the BIOS. If your BIOS can see the USB harddrive make sure its listed correctly (i.e. make sure the BIOS knows its an EXTERNAL device and not listed as an IDE drive or SCSI) Refer to the Mobo's user manual if your unsure here. Also make sure the 2GB CF card is listed as an IDE drive and NOT an external or USB device.

At this point I highly recommend upgrading your nLite build to include SP2. I know there were some major USB related issues addressed by SP2 When doing this make certian to include "external device support" within nLite. Also download and use the latest version of nLite when rebuilding.

A few more things to remember. Make sure ALL your devices are connected and working properly BEFORE applying minlogon and EWF. I'd recommend that you apply minlogon first and test the system a bit before jumping into EWF.

Another possibility is that your external USB device isn't getting enough power within your car. Does the device work properly when connected to another computer? Does your device have firmware that can be updated?

The last time I saw a problem like this the external USB device was not functioning properly, however you definatly want to test everything before you conclude a bad peice of hardware.

The thing here is that nLited XP on a CF card with XPe components implimented makes for one hell of a troubleshooting experiance. Keep in mind that your dealing with a completely different OS that acts very different from say a normal install of XP pro.

arrrrrrrgggggggghhh!!!

Right before leaving to go home this weekend I put a few songs on the ext hard drive, unplugged it, went in car and left, NO MORE MUSIC!

windows was saying the data structure was corrupt and i couldnt read the contents, when I got home i tried it in my laptop, it worked no problem. I tried it again in the car, still same problem... Next time i used the car I tried it again, no it doesnt even recognize the drive (before it found it, but couldnt open it, now it wont even show up Not even in the devices manager